The Obama Administration Negotiates With Terrorists In Afghanistan

As tempting as it may be sometimes, there’s a very simple reason that you don’t negotiate with terrorists. When you reward terrorists, it encourages them to commit more terrorism. The Obama Administration, which has never shown that it understands anything about tradition, history, military tactics, or economics doesn’t grasp this either.

The revised proposal, a concession from an earlier U.S. offer, would alter the sequence of the move of five senior Taliban figures held for years at the U.S. military prison to the Gulf state of Qatar, sources familiar with the issue said.

U.S. officials have hoped the prisoner exchange, proposed as a good-faith move in initial discussions between U.S. negotiators and Taliban officials, would open the door to peace talks between militants and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The revised proposal would send all five Taliban prisoners to Qatar first, said sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. Only then would the Taliban be required to release Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, the only U.S. prisoner of war.

…The Taliban detainees are seen as among the most dangerous remaining at Guantanamo, and the transfer idea drew strong opposition on Capitol Hill even before it was formally proposed.

…The transfer of the prisoners has long been seen as a necessary evil by U.S. negotiators in their effort to coax the Taliban into talks.

The militant group has long demanded their release, but the Pentagon, which handles detainee transfers, is particularly skeptical of a move officials there fear might not only fail to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table but also lead to the department being blamed for moving dangerous militants out of prison.

According to a report released early this year from the House Armed Services Committee, more than one in four of the 600 former detainees moved from Guantanamo to countries like Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, or Yemen were confirmed or suspected to subsequently be engaged in ‘terrorist activities.’

Obama didn’t give the generals the troops they asked for to properly pressure the Taliban, our soldiers were handcuffed with ridiculous rules of engagement, and Obama set a timeline for withdrawal. So, why should the Taliban negotiate with us? All it has to do is wait a little longer and then we’ll skulk off with our tails between our legs and it can ramp up the rape, torture, and murder to level 11. That will give them\ Taliban a decent shot to try to take the country over again.

Ironically, when it gets to that point, there will probably be hundreds of Taliban fighters we captured and released who’ll be murdering their way across the country. Releasing Taliban leaders in a hostage trade goes beyond that to pure insanity because we’ll have established that we’ll give terrorists whatever they want if they can capture American hostages. If you reward terrorists, they’ll create more terrorism. Even the Obama Administration should know better.